The morning sun had barely cleared the rooftops when I slipped into my classroom. My spare uniform was rumpled; I had not had time to iron it, and after rushing across campus, there was no chance of looking pristine.
Shizuka‑sensei had kept me after my briefing longer than I expected. She wanted every detail: how the abduction started, the fight, the aftermath. I gave her most of the truth. I did not tell her about the insect nesting in Gin's chest, about the blood oath that bound a werewolf to my will. Some truths were better left unspoken.
She surprised me by making me the new president of the Newspaper Club. She said it almost casually, as if handing me a club flyer instead of the reins of an organization that had nearly collapsed under Gin's leadership.
'Amazing, what kinda development is this? Now I have to deal with the Student Council and Hokuto Kaneshiro.'
'Tsk, fine. Might as well get a feel for the guy.'
'But that was next week's problem. Today was Friday. I had the weekend to prepare.'
Walking to class, I thought about what I had told Shizuka and couldn't help but linger longer on that exchange. How the teachers here copied human schools too closely, how they were too soft, how a firm hand was sometimes what monsters understood best. I was not advocating senseless violence. But Gin had skated by for months because no one had checked him hard enough. Sometimes a reprimand was the path to success.
'Maybe I just did not understand the pressures of being a teacher. Or maybe I did not care.'
[> ^ <]
[> ^ <]
Stepping into class, I was greeted by a few of my classmates. Mostly girls.
"Good morning, Aono‑kun!" called a girl from the front row, her hand raised in a small wave. "You look tired. Rough night in our dorm? You should visit more often, since it is boring at night."
"Something like that." I glanced at her. "And no, I would rather avoid Madame Vanga turning me into a frog."
Another girl, taller with glasses, chimed in. "Be careful. Mid‑terms are next week. Do not burn out."
"I will keep that in mind."
A few others murmured greetings, polite but distant. The guys, on the other hand, were less friendly.
"Look who finally decided to show up," one muttered, loud enough for me to hear.
"I heard he spent the night at the girls' dorm," another whispered. "Probably getting cozy while the rest of us studied."
They glared as I walked down the aisle, their eyes tracking me like wolves sizing up prey. Their threat level was D‑tier at best. They could glare all they wanted. It did not change the fact that I had become the strongest person in this classroom, next to Inner Moka.
'Let them seethe. It costs me nothing.'
I dropped into my seat, grateful for the familiar creak of the wooden desk.
Kurumu was already there. Before I could blink, her arms were around me, her lips pressing a kiss to my cheek that lingered just a moment too long.
A groan rose from the back. "Are you kidding me?"
"I am going to kill him," another voice muttered.
I ignored them.
"Good morning, Tsukune." Kurumu pulled back just enough to look at me, her amethyst eyes scanning my face. "You look terrible. Did you sleep at all?"
"I slept. Close to two hours."
She frowned, poking my chest. "That is not enough. You are going to collapse, and then who will protect me from all the scary monsters?"
"No thanks. You will protect yourself. Besides, you are getting stronger."
"Flattery will not get you out of this."
But her expression softened. The dark circles that had haunted her after the Gin incident were gone. Her skin glowed, her eyes clear. She looked rested. Peaceful. Unlike me, who had spent last night exploring the limits of my newly increased Annihilation Maker Manifestation. In the process I had drained my freshly regenerated mana from 'leveling' up and had to run other experiments until five in the morning.
Previously, in my first life, I could consider myself a night owl, a zombie for staying up and playing games like life depended on it, but this time instead of gaming I was doing it out of necessity to survive in this chaotic world.
"You seem better," I said. "At least far better than me."
She tilted her head, a teasing smile spreading. "Maybe because I had pleasant dreams. I kept thinking about your kiss. Did you stay up all night thinking about me too?"
My ears grew warm. "I was busy analyzing last night's events."
"Excuses, excuses." She leaned closer. "You know, if you need help relaxing, I could always—" She breathed against my ear and gave my earlobe a playful lick.
"Not now." I glanced around. "There are people watching."
"So? Let them watch us make out. I do not care what they think. I can just hypnotize them to forget what we did."
"Well, I do. I have a reputation to maintain. A faction to build."
She rolled her eyes. "Narcissist." Seeing me not budge, she added another label. "Hypocrite."
She was not wrong, but I would rather not get freaky in class surrounded by my classmates. I had at least some decency not to turn into a hentai protagonist.
I remained like a stone.
'Begone, thot. I will not allow you to corrupt this innocent soul.'
'Kuriboh, ready the bonk!'
Looking at her face as she was inches away from mine, it almost made me tease her by biting her nose, since it was such an easy target.
"Fine." She pulled back when she saw my eyes following her nose like some predatory shark, though her hand remained on my arm. "But you owe me. Next break, we are continuing this conversation."
"How could I reject the advances of a beautiful girl?"
Her cheeks flushed. "Ahh, stop it, Tsukune‑kun. You are going to make me blush in front of everyone."
"Too late."
She swatted my arm, then grew serious. She pulled out a notebook covered in handwritten notes and highlighted passages.
"Are you ready for the mid‑terms?" Her voice dropped. "I have been so busy with club projects and training and cookies that I have barely had time to study. I am going to fail, Tsukune. I can feel it."
"You will be fine. You are smarter than you give yourself credit for."
"I am really not."
"Do you want some one‑on‑one lessons? I can help you review."
She considered this. "You are only good at math, though. Sorry, but calculus is beneath a succubus."
"Hey, I am not only good at math."
"Yeah? Then why were your last test scores so bad?"
"Too focused on training. Otherwise, how do you think I got to this point?"
Her expression flickered. She glanced around, lowering her voice. "Right… you were a h‑‑‑" She stopped herself, biting her lip. "Sorry. Forbidden word. Say, Tsukune‑kun, do you not miss the human world?"
The question caught me off guard. "I miss going out. But the one thing I miss most is having access to mobile data. My phone is only good for calls and messages here. No internet. No videos. It is like living in the dark ages."
Kurumu's eyes widened. "You are right! I used to spend hours on fashion blogs. Now I have to wait for magazines that are months behind."
She launched into a passionate explanation of the latest trends she had discovered in an old issue of Vogue. I listened, nodding along. It was nice to talk about something that was not fighting or scheming.
"You would look good in that style," she said, pointing at a picture in her notebook. "The darker colors would match your whole vampire aesthetic."
"I have a vampire aesthetic?"
"Have you not noticed? Even in your human form you have always had one. You just did not know it."
I laughed; it sounded too incredulous. While I was better looking than your average person, it was not to the point of being called a vampire in my human form. But as the progression of my transformation went on, I did notice that my features started to change too, adapting to the DNA of a vampire.
She beamed.
But eventually her expression grew anxious again. "What if I fail, Tsukune? What if I end up at the bottom of the rankings? The whole school will know. I will never hear the end of it."
I leaned back, a sarcastic thought forming. "You could always hypnotize one of the smart guys or put them into a dream and copy his answers. I am sure that would not get you expelled at all."
She stared at me for a long moment. Then her eyes lit up. "Tsukune‑kun, you are a genius!"
Before I could react, she lunged forward, pulling my head down into her chest. The impact was soft and sudden.
"I was joking!" I tried to say, my voice muffled.
"You are brilliant! Why did I not think of that?"
"Because it is cheating?"
"Cheating is just creative problem solving."
She squeezed tighter. Behind us, someone groaned. "I cannot watch this anymore."
Another voice, cracked with envy, muttered, "Why does he get to be the one? Why?"
Kurumu finally released me, her cheeks flushed, her smile wide.
"You are too forceful with your boobies," I said.
"Just say that you like it."
'I do. Unfortunately. I love her boobies, the best part of Kurumu. Her personality is also engaging and nice, but boobs are boobs.'
The chatter in the room began to settle as students scrambled to their seats. A few pulled out textbooks. Others just stared at the door, waiting. The first bell was about to ring.
Kurumu tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and turned back to her notebook. "You will help me study, right?"
"I will."
"Promise?"
"Pinky promise."
She smiled. And for a moment, the weight of the week lifted.
The door slid open. Nobuo Mamoru walked in, his short, round frame barely reaching the podium. His whiskers twitched as he surveyed the room, and his beady eyes missed nothing. A tanuki yokai, B‑tier threat level, he had been teaching physics at the Academy for longer than most students had been alive.
[Name: Nobuo Mamoru]
[Threat Level: B (Tanuki)]
"Good morning, everyone." His voice was surprisingly deep for someone so small, a rumble that carried to the back of the class. "Open your textbooks to page two hundred forty‑seven. We have a lot of ground to cover before the exams."
The class groaned in unison. Someone whispered, "Again?"
Mamoru‑sensei's ears twitched. "I heard that, Nakamura. You can stay after class and explain to me why the law of conservation of energy is not 'just a proposition."
The room went quiet.
Just as the sensei was about to put the guy into a world of physics hell, the door opened, revealing the person I had been wondering about ever since I arrived in class (among the last ones, I might add).
Silver hair caught the morning light. Crimson eyes swept across the room, cold and assessing. Inner Moka stood in the doorway, her expression unreadable. The uniform fit her differently than it did Outer, tighter in some places, looser in others, and the overall effect was striking.
The classroom erupted.
"Is that Moka‑san?!" someone shouted.
"Her hair is silver. Since when? Did she bleach it?"
"I do not care! She looks way hotter than before!" A simp, probably doomed to heartbreak.
"I think I am in love," another voice added, dreamy and oblivious.
From the girls' side, a sharp retort cut through the noise. "Dream on. She is obviously with Aono‑kun. Have you not seen them together?"
"Yeah, get your own girlfriend. Stop drooling over someone else's."
The boys grumbled but did not argue. They could not. The evidence was right there, sitting beside me, claiming my space like she owned it.
Inner ignored them all. She walked down the aisle with the casual grace of someone who had never doubted her place in any room. Students shrank back, giving her a wide berth. Even the ones who had been whispering fell silent, their eyes wide.
She stopped at Outer's usual seat, the one beside mine, and sat down. She crossed her legs, folded her arms over her chest, and settled into the chair like a queen claiming a throne.
Kurumu's eyes darted between us. "Inner? What are you doing here?" Her voice was confused, but also panicked. Inner was not the kind of person you could ignore or dismiss. She imposed herself the moment she stepped into any space.
Inner raised an eyebrow. "Attending class. Though I got delayed by a bunch of ants who wanted to court me. They have been sent to the infirmary, so I hope the school has a decent health plan. Also, the weakling and I agreed to a schedule, so today is my day to attend. Do you have a problem with that?"
Kurumu's jaw tightened. "A schedule? I thought you could not stand each other from what that pink‑haired bat described to me."
"We cannot," Inner said flatly. "But we share a body and a heart, and apparently, a boyfriend. Compromise is required."
I held up my hands before the sparks could catch fire. "We can talk about this later. Class is about to start, and Mamoru‑sensei looks like he is about to pop a blood vessel."
The tanuki teacher's whiskers were twitching violently. His beady eyes fixed on Inner. "You. Late student. I have not seen you around. Name."
"Moka Akashiya."
"So it was you, Akashiya. I do not know what went on that you changed your hair, but it does not change the fact that you disrupted my class. Here is your punishment. You will solve the problems on the board. All of them. Correctly. Or you will spend the weekend in detention."
Inner did not flinch. She rose from her seat, walked to the chalkboard, and the room held its breath. A few of the guys leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse of her legs, but none dared to get too bold. Her presence was too intimidating, too cold.
Once at the chalkboard, she gave Mamoru‑sensei a look that could have frozen fire. Her crimson eyes said everything: You are beneath me. I am only entertaining this because I choose to.
She picked up a piece of chalk and studied the problem at hand. The equations were complex, the kind of physics problems that made first‑years cry. She solved them without hesitation, her handwriting elegant, her steps confident. Each line of the solution flowed from her fingers like water. When she finished, she set down the chalk and returned to her seat without bothering to get confirmation from the teacher.
Before Mamoru‑sensei could react, I turned to look at Inner and could not help but give an evil smirk. I fully approved of her method of putting that annoying tanuki in his place. The look on his furry face was priceless.
Mamoru‑sensei stared at the board. His whiskers stopped twitching. "Correct. All of them." He adjusted his glasses, then looked at her with something like respect. "You may stay."
Inner did not acknowledge him. She simply crossed her arms again, her gaze fixed on the window, as if the entire exchange had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
I leaned toward her, close enough that my shoulder brushed hers. "Babe, stop it. You make me want to eat you." My voice was low, meant only for her.
She turned her head just slightly, and a ghost of a smirk played on her lips. Then, with deliberate slowness, she reached up and tucked a strand of silver hair behind her ear, exposing the pale curve of her neck. The motion was casual, almost lazy, but the effect was anything but. It was a tease, a promise, a challenge.
Then she dropped her hand and turned away, taking the sight with her.
'Cruel woman.'
I pressed on, keeping my voice low. "How do you know all that? It is not as if you have read the physics material while Outer was sleeping."
The corner of her lips twitched. She did not look at me, but I could hear the smugness in her voice. "I listened through all the lectures the weakling ignored while she was in the human world. The teachers there were not great, but the concepts were the same. And remember, I like reading books. Physics textbooks were among them."
"Nerd."
Her eyes narrowed, and the temperature in our immediate vicinity seemed to drop. "I will remember that during our next spar."
I held up my hands in surrender. "Worth it."
Behind us, Kurumu watched.
She had been silent through the entire exchange, her amethyst eyes fixed on Inner. The succubus could not help but think that Inner was a perfect student, aside from the cold, untouchable aura she carried. Sharp, composed, effortlessly brilliant. Every answer correct, every movement precise.
What irked Kurumu was that Inner was too smart.
How am I supposed to compete with that? Not just for his attention, but in class? She gets perfect scores without even trying.
She slumped in her seat and stared at her own notes, suddenly feeling very inadequate. The numbers blurred in front of her eyes, and she could not focus. All she could think about was the silver‑haired vampire who had walked in and stolen the room without saying a word.
[> ^ <]
[> ^ <]
The rest of the week passed in a blur of review sessions, late‑night study groups, and whispered prayers to gods who probably had better things to do.
I saw it all from my seat at the edge of the classroom, or from the shadows of the library, or from the corner of the training ground where I caught my breath between sparring rounds.
One night, I passed by the first‑year dormitory and heard a boy chanting, "Please let me pass. Please let me pass. I will sacrifice my collection of limited edition figures to the exam gods."
His roommate, from the sound of it, groaned. "You said that last time. You still failed."
"This time I mean it!"
In the library, a girl with glasses was crying over a chemistry textbook while her friend patted her back. "The periodic table is not going to memorize itself," the friend said. "Stop crying and start reciting."
"I am reciting! That is why I am crying!"
A group of upperclassmen had set up a study circle in the courtyard, their voices low and serious as they debated the merits of different historical interpretations of the Meiji Restoration. One of them, a tall boy with a scar across his cheek, slammed his fist on the table. "It was not a restoration! It was a coup! Call it what it is!"
His companion sighed. "Sensei will mark you wrong if you write that on the exam."
"Then sensei is wrong."
The chaos was everywhere. Students crammed into corners, whispering formulas and dates like they were casting spells. Energy drinks piled up in trash cans. Dark circles bloomed under eyes. The entire Academy held its breath, waiting for the exams to begin and end.
I kept my head down and did my own studying, reviewing notes in the quiet hours before dawn when the rest of the world was still asleep. My past‑life knowledge helped with some subjects, but not all. Japanese history, classical literature, the specific curriculum they taught here – those required effort.
But I prepared just fine for the exams and had full confidence I would rank high.
As I turned the page to the next chapter of my notes, a flicker of movement caught my eye through the window across the courtyard. The infirmary. A figure stood there, half‑hidden by the white curtain… Wait isn't she that woman, Chisato‑sensei?
Her green eyes were fixed on me, sharp behind her round red glasses. A slow, knowing smile curved her lips. Then she raised one hand in a small wave and disappeared back into the shadows of the room.
'Great. Another complication. Just what I needed.'
I closed my notebook and stared at the empty window for a long moment, wondering what kind of trouble a former goddess might bring to this poor, little Vampire boy.